Desserts
by Roses of Sharon
Summary: A series of character studies, because everything has a reason, even if it is never known.
1. Blondies

Disclaimer: I do not own _Naruto_.

Summary: A series of character studies, because every character deserves a tale, even if it is never heard. Part One: Blondies.

Chapter Summary: Blondies. Tsunade, Ino, Naruto, Temari.

Desserts

Part I: Blondies

_i. Tsunade_

Tsunade is beautiful, busty, and blonde. Her skin is tanned from hours training in the sun, and the only blue on her is the diamond on her shoulder. Her hair hangs in two long pigtails. When she was younger, when she wasn't the second-to-last, when she wasn't almost-alone, they were tied with blue ribbons. Now they are held in place by simple elastics. Red ones, not because, they go with her hair – they don't – but because blue – the color of the sky – doesn't seem to fit her.

_ii. Yamanaka Ino_

Ino is beautiful, blonde, and has a figure to die for, but looks like nothing but a waif next to Tsunade. Her skin is pale because her training takes place indoors, in the dimly lit dungeons of Konohagakure. Her eyes are a pale, baby blue, her hair fine, pale gold, and everything about her is light and intense, which should work but does. She's bubbly and girly, and she still refuses to use about half the torture tools for fear of breaking a perfectly manicured nail, but she's effective despite her baby-doll appearance.

_iii. Uzumaki Naruto_

Naruto was never beautiful, like Sasuke, or handsome, like Gaara, but there is no denying his attractiveness. His blonde hair – dark yellow, unlike Ino or Tsunade – matched his tanned skin, deep blue eyes, and white teeth. He is attractive in the way that Sasuke and Gaara are not, because he gives and gives and gives. He belongs, not because he was born to belong – he wasn't, though he should have been – but because he chose to. Because he made a place for himself. Because he _understand_, and _sympathizes_. Because he _cares_.

_iv. Temari of the Sand_

The wielder of a weapon all but erased by time, she is the second – and possibly last – generation. If she dies, then the art of the fan dies with her. She is the second child, the only girl, and she was taught to fear and hate. Now she doesn't want to, she wants to love and forgive and care, but she doesn't know how, and no one knows enough to teach her, though some try.


	2. Mud Pies

Disclaimer: I do not own _Naruto_.

Summary: A series of character studies, because every character deserves a tale, even if it is never heard. Part Two: Mud Pies.

Chapter Summary: Mud Pies, Shikamaru, Tenten, Neji, Iruka, Kankurou.

Desserts

Part II: Mud Pies

_i. Nara Shikamaru_

Brown suits him, he thinks, because brown is mud. Brown is common, boring, and placid. Brown is steadfast, and brown hangs on. No matter what, brown shows through. He's nothing special, he thinks, other than being extraordinarily intelligent. He's boring unless you like watching clouds or need someone technical to explain strategy or tactics to you. And he's always there when someone needs him. Unless, of course, it's too troublesome.

_ii. Tenten_

Tenten likes to think of herself as mud. Or a tree. Or a rock. And not just because her hair matches, either. Because she's nothing special. She has no clan, no family, no last name, and she's a weapon's mistress – Konoha's only, but only because her occupation's survival rate is drastically lower than even other shinobi's. But mud's not dangerous, and there is no doubt that Tenten is not only dangerous – she is _lethal_.

_iii. Hyuuga Neji_

He used to think of himself as mud below the feet of the Main House. Irritating, but still nothing to be worried about unless you are unduly clumsy or overly worried about the state of your clothing. His hair, even, is a muddy brown compared to Hinata's vibrant purple of Hanabi's deep black. It is not until he _really _sees Hinata that he sees that he could be anything else, because although he fought fate, he never believed he could win. And it isn't until Hinata is the Head of the Hyuuga Clan that he sees that maybe, instead of being mud, he could be a tree: strong and graceful, a symbol for ages to come.

_iv. Iruka_

Iruka _is _mud. Only a chuunin when all others in his class have gone higher – or died trying – he is content to remain. He was never great, and he knows that he was never wonderful, never especially good at taijutsu or genjutsu or anything else, he has what other shinobi have lost – the ability to love. So he stays behind, and he listens as his students talk to each other about the shinobi they want to be like, and, one day, when one of his students says he wants to be a teacher and the others laugh, he only smiles.

_v. Kankurou of the Sand_

The oldest son of the Yondaime Kazekage, he was born to be the Godaime Kazekage when it was his turn. He never wanted the job. Born to greatness, he was to be the strongest shinobi there was. He choose puppetry, and his father never forgave him, because he wasn't fast enough, wasn't smart enough, wasn't _good _enough. If he had been like Sasori – the puppet master, though he was defeated – then maybe, maybe it would have been enough. But he isn't, and he doesn't want the job, doesn't want anything to do with it, and is happy to stand behind his brother, because now, finally, between his brother and his sister, he's found his place.


	3. Vanilla Ice Cream

Disclaimer: I do not own _Naruto_.

Summary: A series of character studies, because every character deserves a tale, even if it is never heard. Part Three: Vanilla Ice Cream

Chapter Summary: Vanilla Ice Cream; Kakashi, the White Fang, Jiraiya, Kabuto.

Desserts

Part III: Vanilla Ice Cream

_i. Hatake Kakashi_

He's always thought it funny – not _haha _funny, but ironic funny – that he, who should be stained red, would have white hair. He supposes that it must have come from his father, though he never knew him well. But he is shinobi, so he wears his mask and wears it well and never asks for sugar topping.

_ii. The White Fang_

He has white hair, hence his name, but more often than not, now, it bears strawberry sauce, staining it red-brown-red. His hair is white, his hands stained red, and he looks down at the child in his arms and _wishes _that Kakashi, little, innocent Kakashi would not grow up to be the same. It is a foolish wish, and when it doesn't come true, he is not surprised.

_iii. Jiraiya_

Jiraiya wasn't born with white hair, not like the Hatakes are. _His _hair is natural, because he is old, so old, and even his white hair is not so much white anymore. He should have died ages ago, because shinobi do not live to be as old as he is, but he has. And now he lives without his teacher, who's dead, and his brother, who's worse. He stands around and _waits_ because that's what he does. Waits for the day when his brother will come home, or the day when he will go to him, and the day that the two of them and their golden-haired sister will _die_.

_iv. Kabuto_

He wasn't always like this, his hair wasn't always prematurely white, and he didn't always belong to a black-haired snake pedophile. Once, he was pure and clean, as much as any shinobi can be, but that was a long time ago, and that pure visage has long melted away, leaving behind only this. And he does not know what this is, only that it is stained with murderous chakra and killing intent, and he does not want to be this, but this is the road he has chosen, and this is the way.


	4. Strawberry Cream

Disclaimer: I do not own _Naruto_.

Summary: A series of character studies, because every character deserves a tale, even if it is never heard. Part Four: Strawberry Cream.

Chapter Summary: Strawberry Cream; Karin, Sakura, Gaara

Desserts

Part IV: Strawberry Cream

_i. Karin_

Karin is sweet. Sweet like sugar and honey and syrup and suffocating cream. Cheap cream, the kind with no flavoring and the texture of liquefied Styrofoam, and sweetness so overpowering _(and addictive). _Karin is sweet. Sweet like venom. Because Karin is a kunoichi of the Sound, and this is something she can never, ever forget.

_ii. Haruno Sakura_

Sakura is soft. Soft like silk and feathers and hair and choking threads. Strong, thing threads, utterly useless until it is wrapped around your throat and you are gasping for air, blood dripping down your throat. But Sakura is soft like bandages and wet cloths and caring hands, because Sakura is not just kunoichi, Sakura is healer, lover, sister.

_iii. Karin_

Karin is red. Red like passion, like fury, like blood. Karin lives and dies by chakra and kunai and shuriken and the sword, but sometimes she likes to pretend. She covers the redness in white innocence and pretends that there is nothing but tangy sweetness, nothing but whole-hearted love.

_iv. Haruno Sakura_

Sakura is pink, pink like cotton candy and cherry blossoms and the fan with the steel edge hanging from her waist. She likes to dream, too; likes to live in rosy daydreams where wrong is wrong and right is right, and there is no in between. It is a pretty daydream, so when it shatters, she is not surprised. But she is weak, and she lifts trembling fists to fight because she's good at pretending – pretending she can win.

_v. Sabaku no Gaara_

Gaara is, he thinks, well-adjusted. Well enough, considering everything. But he will never be normal. He will never be able to, in his old age, reminisce about childhood tragedies, because he didn't have a childhood. He will probably not live to old age, anyhow. Because he is Sabaku no Gaara, Gaara of the Sand, the Kazekage. So he is strong, not so much because he chose to be, but because he _is. _He's not sweet, he's the tangy pieces of strawberry, the sharpness of the seeds, the toughness of the skin.


	5. Violet Icing

Disclaimer: I do not own _Naruto_.

Summary: A series of character studies, because every character deserves a tale, even if it is never heard. Part Five: Violet Icing

Chapter Summary: Violet Icing; Yuugao, Hinata

Desserts

Part V: Violet Icing

_i. Uzaki Yuugao_

Perfection is what she strives for. Perfection of the body, of the sword, of the self. She knows, quite well, that she can never reach it. But she reaches for perfection, and that is what drives her to be kunoichi, what makes her reach for chuunin, jounin, ANBU. Perfection is what she strives for, every hair falling exactly, every weapon stored perfectly. Perfection. But she knows they will never see her as anything but a woman. Weak, sentimental, ornamental, and utterly useless.

_ii. Hyuuga Hinata _

Hinata was born early – by over three weeks. She should not have survived, but she did – she's a fighter, they had said, in milder terms, you can expect much from her. So they did – they put their hopes and dreams and wishes, weighing her down and blaming her for it. See, Hinata is not the one who failed. Her family failed. She was talent surrounded by genius, and they did not help her but crush her, and they don't quite have the ability of self-judgment yet.


	6. Dark Chocolate

**Edited** March 5, 2008 – spelling errors

Disclaimer: I do not own _Naruto_.

Summary: A series of character studies, because every character deserves a tale, even if it is never heard. Part Six: Dark Chocolate

Chapter Summary: Dark Chocolate; Hana, Kiba, Shizune, Neji, Tenten

Desserts

Part VI: Dark Chocolate

_i. Inuzuka Hana_

She is used to feeling shame, the bittersweet tang of failure, the weight of incriminating gazes. In the wake of Itachi's defection, in the wake of his betrayal, she has felt more than enough of that. _You must have meant _something _to him_, the judgmental glances seem to say, _you must have had some sort of power over him. _And the worst, the wordless glances, the ones without logic or thought, _Why didn't you stop him? _But Hana is an Inuzuka, so this is just how it is: not as much power as a Clan, more than the common, Clan-less ninja.

_ii. Inuzuka Kiba_

Kiba is proud. (Like Hana was, before.) So Kiba feels keenly the differences between himself and Hyuuga Hinata, his teammate. He sees the way she holds herself, almost unconsciously, proud and tall. Her voice is clear, though she stammers. her face, despite the blushes that pass across it, is alabaster pale and perfectly composed. And then he passes a glass, sees his own darkness, his own wildness, compared to her pale perfection. He does not want that for himself, perhaps, but for his sister. His sister, who wasn't really given a choice – a chance.

_iii. Shizune_

Shizune is just the tiniest bit jealous of Sakura. Not for any sole, concrete reason, but for… for getting what she could not. Because to become truly strong, to become one of Tsunade-sama's, Shizune had to give it all up. Shizune is no longer kunoichi. She is a retainer, a bodyguard, a woman with all the skills of a kunoichi, but not the title. So Shizune is just the tiniest bit jealous of Sakura, who got it all.

_iv. Hyuuga Neji_

Neji is _different_, this much he has always know. Even his very name, _Neji_, is different. But Neji is _good _different. Neji is different because he is The Prodigy. He taught himself the Hyuuga techniques, he taught himself the best ways to close tenketsu, to use his Byakugan. But his technique is off. In terms of technique, any and all members of the Main House are better than he is, because _they _did not have to teach themselves. And Neji is a little bit jealous, a little bit bitter, because he could have been the best – but now, he can only reach.

_v. Tenten_

Tenten has much to be envious of, but she tends to (try) to push it aside, push it away, resist the temptation to wallow in self-pity. If you were to ask her, though, what she has to be jealous of, she'll tell you. _I'm envious of that Rain-nin with the claymore_, she says. _I'm envious of whoever can afford titanium kunai. _If you listen long enough, she may actually begin to tell the truth, buried under layers of not-quite-truth. _I'm jealous of Ino, because she has a family. I'm jealous of Hinata, because she has money. I'm jealous of Sakura, because she has Tsunade-sama. I'm jealous of Lee, because he has Gai-sensei. I'm jealous of Neji, because he has a goal. _You might even listen to the end. _Truth is_, she says, _I'm a jealous person. It makes me human. _


	7. Black Coffee

Disclaimer: I do not own _Naruto_.

Summary: A series of character studies, because every character deserves a tale, even if it is never heard. Part Seven: Black Coffee

Chapter Summary: Black Coffee; Sasuke, Itachi, Shino, Mikoto, Fugaku

Desserts

Part VII: Black Coffee

_i. Uchiha Sasuke_

Sasuke is hot, burning, bitter hate burned down to ashes, embers, and a faceless, nameless purpose. He is bitter, only bitter, but _always _bitter, always dreaming of what life would be like if _that man _had not done what he did, always dreaming of what could be done once _that man _had been wiped off the face of the earth. He never really gets past dreaming.

_ii. Uchiha Itachi_

Itachi doesn't know. He's lost, in a manner of speaking, blind, in another. He isn't quite sure what he's supposed to be doing. He isn't quite sure why he did what he did. There _were _reasons, though, of that he is sure. He remembers quite well the clear-headed debates before the bloody massacre, remembers quite clearly that death won. Over what, he asks himself. Life? He drains his coffee, smiling at the bitter taste. Maybe he's masochistic. Maybe he's punishing himself.

_iii. Aburame Shino_

He is very, very accustomed to the stares and disgusted faces of those who discover who – what – he is. A home for bugs. It is sometimes very, very difficult to be polite, when no one dares to meet your eyes, or even raise their eyes above your chest; when no one dares to touch you. Sometimes, he wonders whether he will have to marry an Aburame – maybe his second cousin twice removed on his mother's side, who is sixteen, just two years younger than him. Or maybe his third cousin's daughter – she is nineteen, a few months older. So he keeps looking, keeps going out even though it hurts in the hope that, well, _someone _will see him, won't they? _Someone _will eventually see him as something other than a catalyst of their fear, their disgust. He tries, very hard, not to feel too bitter about it.

_iv. Uchiha Mikoto_

Mikoto is a bad mother, a terrible wife. She doesn't love Fugaku, though it is her duty, and she knows that she ought to. And she loves Itachi, her son, but not enough. No, not enough. She wasn't strong enough, didn't love enough, for her to stand up to the Clan and take her son, her beautiful, intelligent son from their grasp. She stood by and let them take him, let them mold him, let them break him – and did nothing about it. She places her hand over the bulge of her stomach. She will not fail again, she vows. This time, she says she'll be strong enough.

_v. Uchiha Fugaku_

Fugaku is unused to failing. He is strong, cold and burning at once, and always exactly what and where and when he needs to be. He has been trained for that, for this. …Not this. Never this. They had never imagined that his could happen, had never imagined that he could be so, so… A shake of the head. He couldn't finish that sentence, didn't _want _to finish that sentence, didn't quite remember what he was to say. Something very unimportant, but vital. Was that paradoxical? When one is dying, when one's life is dripping from one's veins, it doesn't matter as much anymore. He tried, so very hard to be strong enough. Slowly, he turns to face his wife. Mikoto. Beautiful, frail Mikoto. And he wonders, could he have failed?


	8. Florentines

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

Disclaimer: I do not own _Naruto_.

Summary: A series of character studies, because every character deserves a tale, even if it is never heard. Part Eight, Florentines.

Chapter Summary: Florentines. Holey and cracked and flimsy, beautiful and so easily broken. Tsunade, Tenten, Ino, Naruto, Shizune, Temari.

Desserts

Part VIII: Florentines

_i. Tsunade _

Tsunade has already broken, before, and so she thinks that she cannot break again. She has put herself together, been forced together by circumstances, unforeseeable and beyond her control, and she believes that she has already broken once and so cannot be broken again, not like she was. Dan has already died once, she thinks. He cannot die again. She cannot fail him again. But now, as she kneels on the ground beside the body of a boy who reminded her so much of one she once failed to save, she thinks that a person can never stop breaking. Can never be free of the threat of failure.

_ii. Tenten_

Tenten knew the sting of failure, once. She knew what it felt like for a mother to look at you with indifference, to glance at your father with fear, and to walk away. She knew what it felt like to feel a father's fury, and to watch his back as he leaves her. Alone. And she swears that she will never know again what it feels like to break, to crack, to shatter. And she will not, she thinks, as she watches chakra flow into the body of her teammate. A moment later, the woman who once was known as _kunoichi_ flies to pieces.

_iii. Yamanaka Ino _

Ino breaks like glass, like plastic. Ino breaks and the shards of her soul dig into that of the man unfortunate enough to break her, drives deep and hard and _biting._ But she is beautiful, in the breaking. Like in slow motion, like in the motion pictures, she falls and breaks and the light shines _just right _and the wind blows through and the pieces clink together like music and it is beautiful – she is beautiful. And she breaks.

_iv. Uzumaki Naruto _

No one ever believed that Naruto could break, because Naruto is light and air and power. Naruto is the one who holds on and keeps loving and dreams _big _dreams, bigger than anything. But he can break. And it doesn't take so much to break him, in the end. It takes a head of pink hair smeared red with blood, it takes a black-haired boy lying beside her in the mud, and it takes a city falling down around him – but in the end, Uzumaki Naruto knows what it feels like to break.

_v. Shizune _

Shizune follows Tsunade because it is her life. She remembers once that it was different, that she had dreams and vision and hope and something beyond this goal. When pretty boys smiled at her and chased after her, and she flipped long, long hair over her shoulders and smiled back. When life was different, because _she _was different. But now she does what she has to, _because _she has to, and wonders when it will all fall apart. Because she knows that it will.

_vi. Temari of the Sand _

Temari doesn't remember breaking, but she is sure that it has happened. How else could she have turned out as she is? How else could she become this person, this kunoichi, if she had not first broken? Because kunoichi are broken, she knows. Kunoichi are broken and breaking and being forced back together. But she swears, as she holds onto her brother's hand and listens to his shallow breathing, that she will not break again. She will not allow herself another excuse to break.


	9. Hershey's Kisses

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

Disclaimer: I do not own _Naruto_.

Summary: A series of character studies, because every character deserves a tale, even if it is never heard. Part Eight, Florentines.

Chapter Summary: Hershey's Kisses. Sweet and false. Tenten

Desserts

Part VIII: Hershey's Kisses

_i. Tenten_

And she sits beside the hospital bed and stares, stares at the boy before her who she always believed in, the boy she thought would never break, never lose, never lie here pale as death. And the nurses and the doctors and the surgeons and the Hyuuga go by in a blur, and each one asks here, _Are you okay? _It is a silly question, and she does not know why they ask it when the answer is so obvious. _Yes_, she says, and that is a lie. But she makes it the truth.

_ii. Hyuuga Neji_

Neji is what he has to be, and never what he wants to be. He rebelled against that, once. He believed that Destiny, that Fate, determined that he should rise beyond his birth, beyond the birth of his father, _too late by five minutes or nine years_. But he cannot, does not make it. And so he is bitter, and so he is sweet. Because he cannot make it, and he has accepted that. Acceptance is not forgiveness, never, but Neji knows better than the hold (_visible, glaring_) grudges, and so he will obey. For now.

_iii. Nara Shikamaru _

And Shikamaru lies everyeveryeveryday, to everyone and everything, and mostly to himself. Because he hates watching the clouds, and he hates shogi, and he hates tacticians and strategy. Because he hates fighting, hates having to kill. Hates having to look the other way when Ino comes home from a night out of town, hates having to pretend to believe her lies. But he fights and cloud-watches and plays shogi, plots the million different ways to kill everyone and everything. Because he loves Konoha. And because he loves _her_.

_iv. Umino Iruka _

And Iruka is a teacher not because he cannot do, but because he can. He can do far too well, and he is _afraid_. He is frightened and scared and mostly of himself, because he has seen what he can do and it hurts. It bites him right in the heart, right were it hurts the _goddamned _most, and he is afraid. And somewhere between his first mission and his last, between chuunin exams and jounin, he walks up to the Hokage and tells him _I quit. _It is the Hokage who suggests the Ninja Academy, where he can be anything and everything, where he can teach and nurture instead of kill and kill and kill, and he agrees.

_v. Shizune _

And Shizune smiles and sits in a corner and _lies_. Shizune plots her revenge, piece by piece, bit by bit. Because Shizune does not follow Tsunade for nothing. Shizune follows Tsunade for a reason, and it is a good reason. (The reason is called _vengeance._)

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

So I was writing this, and I realized something totally crappy in the middle.

Like, why was I writing an Ino bit?

Ino is blonde, you idiot!

So I had accidentally written one.

The problem is, I actually liked it. So here it is.

_And Ino slides in closecloseclose to her victim, her chosen prey. And in this moment she is everything that she can no longer be. She is sweet and innocent and naïve, foolish and quiet and beautiful in it. Hey, she whispers, and the man turns around to stare at her. Hey, she repeats, and counts two-one-hundred for the proper moment of hesitation. He stares and she blinks and licks her lips, and in the next moment he is kissing her and she is poisoning him. _


	10. Burnt Marshmallow

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

Disclaimer: I do not own _Naruto_.

Summary: A series of character studies, because every character deserves a tale, even if it is never heard. Part Ten, Burnt Marshmallow

Credit: Because I was (_am_) totally running out of ideas, and I needed, like, four more chapters (at the time), Neon Genesis was _superspecialawesome_ and gave me this idea. So, thank you. I also need _one more _idea, so if anyone wants to help me out a bit?

Chapter Summary: Burnt Marshmallow. And they are hard and black and cold outside, but inside there is warmth. Uchiha Sasuke, Mikoto, Itachi. Hyuuga Hanabi.

Desserts

Part X: Burnt Marshmallow

_i. Uchiha Sasuke_

There is something cold in his face, something hard and bitter and (_uglyuglyugly_) beautiful. And he scares her some days, scares her so much with those closed eyes, those sealed thoughts. _Your eyes match your heart_, she thinks of telling him, but she still hopes. She still dreams, dreams that somesomesomeday he'll crack and he'll break, right here in front of her, open up and let her in, let her fix him. So she watches and smiles and tries not to flinch, and she _stays_.

_ii. Uchiha Itachi_

And Uchiha Itachi is _breakingbreakingbreaking_, is _crackingcrackingcracking_, is _burningburningburning_, which is ironic. But he is burning, is roasting slowly (over the flames of Hades and Hell and whatever else you want to call it), and soon there will be nothing of Itachi left, just Uchiha and an _emptyemptyempty _husk, _empty_. Because Itachi is dying ever day, Itachi is being killed, and killing himself, and soon there will be nothing of _aniki_, nothing of _nii-san_. (But he's not gone, not yet, and Itachi - what is left of him - looks out through empty eyes and dreams.)

_iii. Uchiha Mikoto _

Mikoto is every inch kunoichi, but she is not. Because she is Uchiha, and she is female, and if she were one and not the other or had been born but twenty years later, she could have been. But she is what she has been born, and she has never been allowed to regret it. But she is every inch, every fiber kunoichi, as hard and cold, beautiful and untouchable, as kunoichi seem (_are_). Fugaku weds her in a marriage of coincidence, and has never believed she could love - not passionately - until he sees her with their (_herhis_) their son.

_iv. Hyuuga Hanabi _

Because Hanabi is hard and unforgiving, she is ice. _Thickthickthick _ice, a wall of it, and when you try to get close to it, you freeze. You cannot touch it, you cannot lean against it and take shelter from the wind. You can only sit and stand and stare at the strength, at its power. (And ice melts, always, from sun and flame and fire, and the sun always comes out.)


	11. Baked Alaskan

Disclaimer: I do not own _Naruto_.

Summary: A series of character studies, because every character deserves a tale, even if it is never heard. Part Eleven, Burnt Alaskan.

Credit: OpalescentStorm, thank you so much for this brilliant idea, and for waiting so very long on this chapter! To every else, a reminder that this is the _Last Chapter_. As always, I encourage you to look for my other stories! Thanks!

Chapter Summary: Baked Alaskan. Sakura on Ino, Naruto on Sasuke, Hana on Itachi, MIkoto on Fugaku, Hinata on Hanabi, Tenten on Neji, Rin on Kakashi, Jiraiya on Tsunade, Tsunade on Orochimaru, Hinata on Shino.

Desserts

Part XI: Baked Alaskan

_i. Yamanaka Ino_

Sakura has often heard others - other women, generally - describe Ino as frightening. _She looks like such a bitch_, they whisper, never guessing that she can hear every word they say. Sakura, on her best days, can sympathize - Ino makes a strikingly formidable figure when she is angry, cold and frozen, hard. Her eyes sparkle like ice and her hair whips in the wind and for a moment, Sakura cannot see where kunoichi ends and her best friend begins. On her worst days, Sakura curses the girls for their blindness.

_ii. Uchiha Sasuke_

Naruto rarely goes on missions with Sasuke anymore, and not only because there is no more Team Seven. It is because Sasuke works best - kills best - alone. It is because Sasuke, when infuriated, could probably defeat him without thinking whose flesh it is his sword bites into. It's because a Sasuke fixed on his duty is a Sasuke Naruto has already seen, and never wants to see again. Because that Sasuke is cold and dead and dark, burnt with fury and fear in his own soul, and for a moment (_while_), Sasuke is not Sasuke (not _brotherfriendteammatelover_), only Uchiha.

_iii. Uchiha Itachi_

Inuzaka Hana thinks she remembers, but the years have been long an dhard and arduous, and the memories faded and soft through years of handling. But she thinks she remembers - remembers a twinkle in a teammate's eyes, a soft smile in a maybe-lover's. Maybe. But she's not so sure anymore, what she saw in Itachi's eyes, and maybe she does not want to. Because if she was right, and it was love… (_Where has my Itachi gone, and who is this deadmanwalking in his place?_)

_iv. Uchiha Fugaku_

The Uchiha kill their children, Mikoto decides. The Uchiha kill their children as they grow, lock their hearts in iron cages and muzzle them with cold steel, bind their hands with chakra and hand feed them kunai and drugs and techniques and _kill your brother and take his eyes, darling_. And she looks up at her husband, and she frowns, a little, and she wonders what he could be, if he would only show her. 

_v. Hyuuga Hanabi_

Hinata remembers, remembers with the clarity of Resolved Fate and Changed Destiny, the birth of her sister. She comes with blood and pain, and white knuckles and harsh breaths, and she cries. Hinata is most thankful for this fact, because she remembers also the stories - of the Uchiha heir, who never cried and never smiled and destroyed them all, in the end. So Hinata is thankful for her sister, who cries as though she realizes exactly what the exercise is doing for her lungs, and who keeps the Compound up all night. Later, when Hanabi grows silent and cold and distant, Hinata remembers, and Hinata is grateful. Because Hyuuga may be corrupt, and the House may be terrible, but Hinata does not think that it deserves to fall yet. Not yet. Not like that. So Hinata rejoiced in the fact that, somewhere in the ice that has frozen her sister, there is a heart that beats and loves and lives, exalts in life - even if she cannot see it.

_vi. Hyuuga Neji_

Tenten marries him not for gold, as the Hyuuga say; she does not marry for love, as her friends say. She marries him for duty and for hope, because that is all she has left. Duty, because he is _Team_, and he is all she has left, and she is all he has left. And hope, because sometimes in his eyes she sees _Love_ and _Faith _and _Desire_, and maybe sometimes she doesn't, but she marries him because she sometimes does, and that makes her believe. It makes her believe in Tomorrow in the End, and in Beginnings, and in him. That someday, he will show her everything, and they will live happily ever after, together. For love.

_vii. Hatake Kakashi_

Kakashi-kun does not love her, and this she knows like she knows she is kunoichi, like she knows she is woman and killer and seductress. Kakashi-kun does not love her, and never will love her, and _can _never love her. But she loves him nonetheless, and it is through no fault of his, and certainly no fault of hers. She loves him because she believes that she can break him, that she can crack that hard shell open and reveal everything that is within; she loves him because he will hate and love her for it, and she loves him because someday he will meet the woman of his dreams, and he will not know how to love her, and she will not be able to love him. And so she loves him because this is the only way she knows to fix this.

_viii_. _Tsunade_

Jiraiya loves her because of who she was, and because of who she is, and most of all because she is still alive. She is all he has left, he thinks; except that Hatake boy, maybe, and it is not as though _they _converse at all. Not anymore; not since his father died. But Jiraiya loves Tsunade because of who she was, because she was beautiful and fresh, and full of belief and beauty and dreams. And because of who she is, because she is _still here_, and that is the important part. She is not who she was, certainly, but he believes that that Tsunade has not died; that Tsunade is still in there, somewhere, only waiting for the moment when the world has truly not ended, and the fighting is over and the suspicion and war and paranoia are over to truly step out.

_ix._ _Orochimaru_

Tsunade knows she must have loved him once, in that dim childhood when they were a team and the Yellow Flash - _but he was really just Sensei, then,_ she thinks fondly. _Just Sensei, perpetually late and in love with ramen_ - was still alive. And she likes to think that there was something there to love, and maybe there was. Maybe there was something beautiful and kind and loving and proud, behind all that… all that whatever it was. That hard, cold, beautiful shell. Maybe the was something there. She just never truly saw it.

_x. Aburame Shino_

And so Hinata believes, because Shino is good and kind and brilliant; maybe a bit silent and maybe a bit detached, a bit distant, but a wonderful person. A wonderful teammate, and why can't they see that? Why must he always hide himself behind the high collar and the long coat and the sunglasses, because really. Really, he's a beautiful person, Hinata believes. He has a beautiful soul. So why does he have to hide it?


End file.
